LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice…” (Psalm 95:6-7, the Holy Bible).

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IS RAFANAN WORTH CRYING FOR? Is lawyer Ferdinand Rafanan, the ousted legal chief of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), worth crying for? Apparently yes, if I am to base my answer on the tears publicly and copiously shed by lawyer Noy Macatangay while he was pleading for a more just treatment by the poll body of Rafanan, in the presence of Commissioner Lucenito Tagle last Tuesday, August 30, 2011.

Tagle, one of the senior officers of Comelec, was the guest speaker of the Capitol Christian Leadership (CCL) during its regular Tuesday breakfast fellowship at the Faith Baptist Church in Quezon City, upon the invitation of CCL Chairman Pastor Jose “Jojo” Lagunzad Gonzales. CCL is a 43-year old association of Christian churches in the Philippines.

Macatangay said the whole Christian community in the country are crying and praying for Rafanan, a Christian whose faithfulness to his faith has made him uncompromising in the discharge of his duties, first as a regional director for Metro Manila and, until his ouster this week, as chief of the Comelec legal department, and which has made him unpopular even among the poll body’s bosses.

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THE PRIMACY OF THE CHINESE: The primacy of the Chinese is what I am seeing in the on-going state visit of President Aquino to China. First, it is very clear that Aquino’s delegation, though legally called the Philippine contingent, is actually composed of big Chinese businessmen who have successfully established themselves in Manila.

Second, it is also obvious, of course, that Aquino and company are now talking to Chinese political and economic big wigs in China, enticing them to come to the Philippines and invest. If the truth be told, the Chinese are talking to their fellow Chinese!

This would seem to be a fulfillment of what the Bible, in Deuteronomy 28:15, in relation to Deuteronomy 28:43-44, is saying: If you do not listen to God and do not obey Him, the foreigners who live among you shall rise higher and higher while you sink lower and lower, they will lend to you and you will not lend to them, they will be your leaders and you will be their followers, in your own land.

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WHY THE RUSH IN GLOBE ASIATIQUE CASES, PASIG RTC ASKS: It must have been very embarrassing for Justice Secretary Leila De Lima to be told that the syndicated estafa cases filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against the owners of scandal-ridden Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. have been blocked by Pasig City Regional Trial Court Judge Rolando Mislang, a former DOJ prosecutor himself.

I mean, Mislang’s order was saying something that the DOJ should have known and followed beforehand: that it could not proceed with the prosecution of Globe Asiatique owner Delfin Lee and company because there is a civil case that is already pending in court, involving the allegedly anomalous loan of P12 billion given to the company.

The question is: if the DOJ was aware that it could not prosecute Delfin Lee yet at this time because of the pendency of the civil case, and Judge Mislang was aware of this inability, how come the DOJ insisted on filing the non-bailable cases against Delfin Lee and company? Why the apparent hurry? That is the clear query of the Pasig City RTC.

I mean, Mislang’s order was saying something that the DOJ should have known and followed beforehand: that it could not proceed with the prosecution of Globe Asiatique owner Delfin Lee and company because there is a civil case that is already pending in court, involving the allegedly anomalous loan of P12 billion given to the company.